Toyota won the 6 Hours of Shanghai 2018 at Shanghai International Circuit. The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Toyota Gazoo Racing covered 113 laps over 6 hours, a race distance of 616 km. The winning crew: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. The margin to second place was just 1.419 s — a sprint finish after a full endurance race. The fastest manufacturer also produced the winner.
How the Lead Was Won
Across the race we counted 3 lead changes among 3 different cars in the LMP1 class. At the closest point, first and second were only 0.5 s apart. For 6 of 6 measured hours the gap stayed under 30 seconds.
That is a real head-to-head fight, not a comfortable lead.
Figure 1 shows how that gap moved over the distance.
Manufacturer Pace
We rank pace by the average of each manufacturer’s fastest lap. That measures real speed over the distance instead of one lucky lap. The order at the top: Toyota (161.3 km/h), Rebellion (160.2 km/h), BR Engineering (159.2 km/h).
Between the fastest and the slowest manufacturer in the LMP1 class lie 4.4 km/h. That is a wide spread. At this track, the concept differences show clearly.
Figure 2 sets the pace order side by side.
Reliability by Class
3 of 35 cars did not make the finish — an overall retirement rate of 9%. The heaviest toll fell on LMP1 with 25%, while LMGTE Am came through best at 0%.
Over this distance, reliability is a result in itself. A car that stops scores nothing, no matter how fast it was.
Figure 3 compares the classes directly.
Efficiency Over the Distance
Our efficiency score multiplies average lap speed by laps completed and compares that to the class average. It rewards cars that were fast and stayed out of trouble. A value of 1.000 is exactly class average.
The top score goes to #8 Toyota with 1.115. The winner, #7, is not on top here. Track position and strategy turned into a result that raw efficiency alone does not explain.
Figure 4 ranks the cars by that score.
The Closing Phase
In the final hour, 34% of the field held position within ±1 place (n = 35). The closing hour stayed busy, with position changes across the field. The biggest single move came from #17 BR Engineering, 29 places back.
Figure 5 shows how settled the finish really was.
Fastest Lap and Class Gaps
The fastest single lap of the race belongs to #8 Toyota (Toyota Gazoo Racing): 2:01.381 at 161.7 km/h. Crew: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso.
Between LMP1 and LMP2 sits a pace gap of 7.8 s per lap. That number decides how much traffic the leaders have to work through.
Class winners — LMP1: #7 Toyota (Toyota Gazoo Racing), LMP2: #38 Oreca (Jackie Chan DC Racing), LMGTE Pro: #95 Aston Martin (Aston Martin Racing), LMGTE Am: #77 Porsche (Dempsey - Proton Racing).
Putting the Race in Context
The winner averaged 102.2 km/h across 616 km. On a 5.451 km lap, that is the pace the whole strategy had to sustain.
We calculate the same metrics for every race in the archive: pace order, reliability by class, lead changes, winning margin, closing stability and efficiency. That makes this race directly comparable with every other round of the 2018-2019 season — and with the seasons before it.
All figures are derived from the full classification of every race hour and are recalculated with each build.
